RUSSIANS' POISON PERFUME
Brits ID agents in nerve-gas attack
British authorities on Wednesday blamed two Russian military-intelligence officers for the nerve-agent attack on a turncoat Russian spy and his daughter, in the latest twist in the biggest East-West diplomatic crisis since the end of the Cold War.
Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that officials suspect the failed assassination plot by Russia’s GRU — which allegedly involved a bottle of counterfeit Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume — was sanctioned by the upper echelon of President Vladimir Putin’s government.
“The GRU is a highly disciplined organization with a wellestablished chain of command, so this was not a rogue operation,” May said.
“It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”
Following May’s remarks, Britain called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday to update members on the incident, for which Russia has denied any responsibility.
The March 4 poisonings of former GRU double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia (below), led to the expulsion of more than 100 Russian diplomats from Britain, the US and allied countries — and titfor-tat ousters of Western diplomats from Russia.
Britain on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for two Russians, whose passports identify them as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, on conspiracy and attempted-murder charges.
The men, whose names are believed to be fake, are accused of using the phony perfume bottle with an extra-long nozzle to spray the nerve agent Novichok on the front-door handle of Skripal’s home in Salisbury, about 80 miles southwest of London.
British counterterrorism chief Neil Basu said the investigation used 11,000 hours of surveillance video too track the Russians’ movements through London and Salisbury between March 2 and 4.
A camera caught them near Skripal’s house shortly be-before noon on the dayay ofof the poisoning, and trace amounts of Novichok were found in the Russian duo’s Lon- don hotel, Basu said. Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury about four hours after the poison was planted. Investigators determined they had been exposed to Novichok, a class of highly toxic chemical weapons developed by the former Soviet Union. The Skripals survived, as did a police officer, Nick Bailey, who became sick after responds to the scene. But Dawn Sturgess, 44, died on July 8, after authorities said she and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, 48, had also been exposed to Novichok.
Basu said Rowley found the perfume bottle that was used to poison the Skripals discarded in Salisbury on June 27.
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the names and pictures “say nothing to us.”